Legendary broadcaster Al Michaels will leave NBC Sports for Amazon to be the lead commentator for the entity’s new Thursday Night Football package, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.
Michaels will be joined in the booth by longtime college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who previously agreed to join Amazon in addition to his role with ESPN.
Sources told Marchand that Al Michaels will be paid in the “Joe Buck neighborhood” to join Amazon. Buck recently left Fox for ESPN to become the lead commentator for Monday Night Football. Buck’s deal with ESPN is for five years and $75 million.
Mike Tirico will slide into Michaels’s old role with NBC. He will broadcast Sunday Night Football alongside color commentator Cris Collinsworth, who remains under contract with the network. Tirico has done a handful of games per year over the last few seasons and was long seen as the replacement for Michaels once his contract was up with NBC following this past season.
Tirico has been the play-by-play announcer for Notre Dame football on NBC, in addition to his studio duties with NBC on Sunday nights. It is not known whether or not Tirico will continue calling Fighting Irish home games this fall.
